Church of England: Rural churches could disappear within ten years

The Church of England has warned that local churches could disappear across
large parts of rural Britain in less than a decade

The local church could disappear across large parts of rural Britain in less than a decadePhoto: Alamy

By John Bingham, Religious affairs editor

9:52PM GMT 10 Feb 2015

The local church could disappear across large parts of rural Britain in less than a decade as ageing congregations die off, the Church of England’s ruling General Synod has been warned.

Members were told that the church could be “eliminated” in its heartland unless it urgently attracts new members.

The Doomsday warning came amid a discussion about plans to dip into the Church’s multi-billion investments to fund a modernisation drive.

It follows a call from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, for members to put aside “nervousness, uncertainty and guilt” to speak openly about their faith.

John Spence, chairman of the Church’s finance committee, told the Synod that there was an urgent case for a new approach. He detailed research showing that regular attendees are declining by around one per cent per year and that two thirds of members are now over 55.

“If you look at that arithmetic projection you identify that over a period 2007 to 2057 church attendance and membership would fall from 1.2 million on a regular basis to something like two or three hundred thousand if current trends continue,” he said.

“If you could stop the loss of membership, rather than death, you would still see a reduction by more than half.

“And even if you started a compound growth rate of three per cent per annum we could expect membership to keep falling until around 2041 before an upward trend is resumed.

“I don’t like using words like ‘burning platforms’ but let’s just remember what that age profile told us.

“We know that we have large numbers of parishes now with very small electoral rolls and with nobody on them below the age of 70.

We know from what at least two diocesan bishops have said that in less than 10 years we will see a threat to the presence of church in communities across rural England and some urban areas as well.

“And we can see the Church of England being eliminated from its key, absolutely essential role of promoting the risen Christ in those places.”